Will I be the first to blog about the Shanghai Webloggers Meetup that happened last night? We'll see!

Who was there:

• Gemme
• Maria and hubby
• Shak
• Joon
• Dan
• Tek
• Sam
• Chris
• Daisy
• and myself.

Apologies to anybody I missed. So it was a pretty impressive turnout. The journalist community was well represented, and of course I always feel intimidated because they know so much about what's going on in Shanghai and the rest of the world, but it's fascinating to eavesdrop on their conversations. And tonight I wasn't totally useless; I did get to contribute a little about what I've been doing on Upcoming.org.

What we discussed:

• Podcasting.
• eBay buying Skype.
• Skype blockage in China.
• Shak's weblog.
• The coffin business.
• Setting up a webpage for the group.
• Pollution.
• Search/SEO status on the "Chinese web".
• The upcoming Chinese Bloggercon.
• Saturday's "Back in Shanghai" bash.

I mentioned to Tek that I still hadn't reached a good solution for portable digital recording. I'm excited about going to Hong Kong, it looks like I'll just be picking up a cheap Minidisc player. I was excited to talk to Joon about music in Shanghai; he was asking some great questions, and made me want to be back on broadband and catching up on the newest beats. Shak was exciting, and his excitement is infectious; I'm glad we'll both be attending the 2005 CEIBS Investors' Forum on Saturday.

As you can see, the Shanghai Webloggers Group is EXCITING. Lots of good ideas flowing around, and people of action hooking each other up with opportunities. Nice! It's a group that I'm proud to be a part of.